Entry Seven – Days after Geonosis, Twenty-Six
The bombings continue, day after day. The level they strike varies, as does the location. Often they are on the other side of the planet. The vastness of the underworld limits their impact. Spread across so much, even a daily bombing is soon reduced to a routine event.
Officer Morne explained that the basic Separatist bombing technique, loading explosives onto common droids, is almost impossible to prevent. Moreover, the police can only secure high-value targets, the gathering points of everyday life remain vulnerable. At the same time, this indiscriminate method limits the overall loss of life, as does the general use of industrial grade explosives rather than far more potent military munitions.
The police have caught a few of these terrorists, or at least they have claimed to do so, by carefully tracking the explosives back to the point of sale. All identified parties so far have belonged to species strongly associated with the Separatists, mostly Koorivar. This seems rather convenient, but I suppose we will have to wait on the courts to learn more.
Thrice more I have joined the emergency response to these heinous bombings. Two were relatively close by, but the most recent call was sent out from thousands of klicks to the north. The medical technicians needed assistance trying to treat members of a species called the Kiamkik, curious sophonts that resemble a gunmetal-gray fox flattened and stretched out. They kept having seizures when the droids attempted to remove shrapnel from their skin. The actual issue turned out to be specialized charge-accumulating cells in their blood. These reacted to any contact with even the slightest conductive surface, causing neural disruption upon discharge. We were able to work around the process by swapping out the usual instruments with highly insulated plastoid variants.
This represents my first accomplishment on this assignment directly traceable to my Medical Corps status. All the diagnostic equipment available to both the local hospital and myself failed to find the connection, but the Force was able to guide me where I needed to see. It seemed word of my expertise has begun to spread through the Bucket. I imagine that these indiscriminate bombings will inflict their suffering on further exotic species and I shall be requested again. I can only hope that I will continue to discern the insights of the Force with equal efficacy.
The networks of the underworld are mostly informal and convoluted, but it seems word travels swiftly along whatever channels there may be. My office has begun to receive a steady flow of non-human patients. Most are still members of common species – humanoids sporting additional head appendages seem to be particularly vulnerable to infection by airborne fungus – but some are truly unusual. Most of these are not total unknowns like the Ellne. The Jedi Archives contain legitimate entries describing their biology and culture and they are tied to long-standing population clusters scattered here and there across the underworld. Instead, they share a specific empty space in their species profiles where the coordinates, and often names, of their homeworlds belong.
Curious as to this pattern, I asked the archivists if they had an explanation. Master Tera Sinube replied that the most likely reason is warfare. The great conflicts of previous ages swept up prisoners, refugees, and slaves from across the galaxy and deposited them on Coruscant. They remained here, living out one generation after another, even as the chaos and devastation of those terrible struggles obliterated all data regarding their origins. As hypotheses go it sounds plausible, and Master Sinube is very wise, but something suggests to me that another piece remains to the puzzle.
I have made one significant medical discovery. The fungus that afflicts so many with debilitating and painful cranial infections is in fact a single highly mutable strain. It adapts rapidly and easily by altering its outer protein coat across myriad textured patterns. This allows it to attack almost any point of weakness on the surface, especially the transitions between tissue types. With the limited access of my office terminal my literature search is still in progress, but it seems there is hardly any humanoid species it is incapable of attacking. I've even had to apply topical treatments to myself, as it attacked my fingernail cuticles, and I'm fairly certain I'm the only Halaisi to reside on Coruscant for centuries.
Consequently, I've begun an experiment to try and counter this particular pest utilizing the rapidly spreading empty shelving in my supply closet. I've applied a wide range of coatings to the standard particulate filters in the hopes of finding one that completely scrubs it from the atmosphere. Hopefully I can refine a modification that might be applied to later filters and drastically lower the prevalence of this affliction. Though it is not life-threatening, it causes significant discomfort, lowers productivity due to the demands of convalescence, and requires expensive broad-spectrum anti-fungal compounds to treat. Eradication, or even significantly reduced incidence, would have major benefits.
Notes
Briefly, with regard to alien species, this entry contains a combination of references to canon and species of my own design. Koorivar, for example, are a near-human species strongly associated with the Separatists, since one of them, Passel Argente, served as the head of the Corporate Alliance. Meanwhile species such as Ellne and Kiamkik are ones I have just made up. This entry also has Nema reference her own species for the first time. Nema, as a Jedi, has been socialized to be human, but she retains certain physiological differences from the human norm – such as variant color balance to her eyesight – that I hope to explore over time.